Her One Gift
by CheekeyMonkey
Summary: It's Sarah's birthday and Cameron wants to get her something that'll show the woman that she's worthy of more than just her trust. But nothing ever goes smoothly when the Connors are involved, especially birthdays. Sarah/Cameron Femslash


**Disclaimers: **I do not own T:SCC. It would still be on TV if I did. I'm simply doing as I please with the characters. No harm, no foul.

**Author's Note: **First, If you're a Lena Headey fan, be aware that she'll be in the upcoming movie called Dredd, and has been casted as Jocelyn Fray from the book series Mortal Instruments, which will be out in August 2013. Ah! The books are awesome (in their own love sick way)! Second, I'd like to say happy birthday to someone that really knows how to push all the wrong buttons! Happy birthday, Hawky! :D

Enjoy! Leave a review! And go see Batman if you're a fan and haven't seen it yet! ;) Bless those in Colorado!

**Summary:** It's Sarah's birthday and Cameron wants to get her something that'll show the woman that she's worthy of more than just her trust. But nothing ever goes smoothly when the Connor's are involved, especially birthdays. Sarah/Cameron Femslash

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_"You shower me with lullabies  
As you're walking away  
Reminds me that it's killing time  
On this fateful day_

_See you at the bitter end_  
_See you at the bitter end"_

_-Bitter End by Placebo_

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**Chapter 1: The Bitter End, Or Our New Beginning?**

"Today is National Cookie Day."

"Damn it, Cameron!" Sarah nearly leapt out of her skin from the sound of Cameron's voice coming from over her shoulder. Said girl was standing at the threshold of the kitchen with her head tilted to the side in a silent regard to Sarah's outburst. It was as if scaring a person into a heart attack was the cyborg's actual mission. Perhaps buying Cameron a bell was something Sarah was going to have to put on her shopping list the next time she goes to the store, for the older woman couldn't understand how Cameron manages to stay silent when she's made up of over a ton of metal.

She bit back the retort she could feel skimming its way along her tongue, knowing Cameron would simply question her actions more than she usually does. Her head was already aching from the dream she was pulled from, she didn't the machine worsening it by bothering her with Non Skynet related information. Not like they needed to know when cookies were to be fired in rockets like its fourth of fucking July. Plus, John would complain from a stomach ache if the cookies were free for the day at Wal Mart.

Sarah set her bottle down on the kitchen table and regarded Cameron with a look of annoyance for her intrusion. "Cookies have a day for themselves?" She responds with sarcasm dripping from her voice, not really interested in the cyborg's discovery. Leave it to Cameron to Google the strangest things during her nights on patrol just to drive Sarah up the wall with insanity.

Cameron moves further into the kitchen, seating herself across from Sarah with a look of childlike wonder on her face. Completely brushing off Sarah's sarcasm, for her interest about the cookies having a day to be recognized was something she found fascinating and wished to share it with Sarah. "Yes, just like Coke and other products that are popularly known have some sort of enigma branching them out to the public for more credit." She answers while she looks down at the bottle of tequila now resting on the table's surface.

The older woman noticed and slid her fingers around the bottle, bringing it back up to her lips and taking a swallow of the liquor. She set the bottle back on the table before responding to the girl. "Yeah, I know about that, Cameron. I used to watch the commercials where polar bears would open up a coke bottle and take a sip." She smirked as her mind took her back to a time when TV was something she could watch without having to worry about some terminator sneaking up on her.

"Why would a polar bear drink coke?"

Sarah shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. "They weren't real polar bears, Cameron." She growled out the words from the terminator's lack of sense went it comes to understanding advertising. "It's not important. What are you doing in here?"

Cameron's silence and unfazed expression irritated Sarah further, since usually Cameron always had a response or two up her sleeve when the time calls for them, but she seemed to not have heard her and simply chose to gaze out the kitchen window. If she was scouting for cookie fireworks, she was going to have to go to John's room and take the ones that were currently swimming in his stomach acid and shoot them herself.

Sarah reconsidered her thoughts. The machine was probably broken from finding out the polar bears drinking coke on TV weren't real, or she needed to insert a quarter into the girl to get her to answer her question, and Sarah was growing nervous the longer Cameron stared out the window. She's had her fair share of silent moments with the girl, some of them ending with Sarah snapping at her to say something useful, but since the Jeep explosion the girl has been acting strangely; Sarah needed her to talk to keep her from thinking she was converting into some Skynet killing robot again.

"You should be sleeping."

_Bingo_, Sarah thought.

Green eyes narrowed at the terminator's lack of answering the question. Last time she checked, Sarah was the one who was supposed to evade the questions that are asked of her. Having Cameron tell her what she should be doing was not something she needed at this time, not when her curiosity was starting to creep up her spine in regard to the cyborg.

"Yeah well, you should be skipping down the yellow brick road." Her reply came out harsher than she intended. She slumped back in the chair, crossing her arms over her chest to mentally protect herself from the girl's accusations.

"Was that sarcasm?" Cameron asked ignoring Sarah's tone.

She wasn't sure how to ask Sarah what she needed to, considering how Sarah and Derek still weren't trusting her since the Jeep explosion had reactivated her Skynet directives. Though, John had told her once that saying sorry is usually how someone is forgiven, she knew if she said sorry to Sarah, then she was going to get a bullet in her head. Cameron didn't want that.

"No. I was serious." The woman arched an eyebrow. Cameron really did surprise her when it comes to human emotion; the way she was slowly picks it up piece by piece. John says she's evolving into something more than a machine. Sarah didn't want to believe it, even if it was staring right at her.

She may never be human, but she could certainly think and feel of her own free will.

And that's what scares Sarah most.

Instead of her usual head tilt, the cyborg scowled at the woman. "You are not funny." She answered with an annoyance creeping into her monotonous voice.

"I'm hilarious. Now tell me why you're in here."

Doe eyes glanced between her and the bottle on the table. Cameron's eyes had constantly peered at it since she sat down and Sarah was starting to think the machine had a dislike for alcohol. Her loss; Sarah's gain. And to spite the girl, she brought it back up to her lips once more. The alcohol burned as it slid down her throat. It was usually what kept her going during the times her nightmares would become too much too bare on her own.

"It's 1:45 in the morning. Today is your birthday." The terminator replied softly. She rose from the chair and left the kitchen with no further explanation of where she was going.

Sarah let her leave. Her heart contracted painfully from the reminder that today was a day she was a year older and a day closer to cancer, and her eyes burned from unshed tears. "Happy fucking birthday, Sarah," She murmured.

A sigh passed her lips. Always running had led to birthdays being celebrated less, and Sarah had already missed out on John's smiles and presents. Missed how he turned a year older, learned new things, and got to be a kid before his mother came crashing his terminator free world. She took all of that away when she brought him back into her life. Never again did he have cake and ice cream on his birthday, only bullets and handguns. Did he hate her for it? Most likely.

Sarah's fingers tapped on the table, a sense of guilt brewing in the pit of her stomach. She was tired of running, tired of putting John through all of this. She wanted Skynet to blow itself up and leave her son alone, but that wasn't possible and the day would be like any other: Running around to dead ends, fighting off machines, and coming home to stitch the wounds.

Happy fucking birthday, indeed. How did Cameron even know about it?

The question had Sarah on her feet and headed towards the girl. She found her in the living room, silently standing in front of the window. Her amber eyes watching the rain as it slid down the glass, seeing past it to the neighbor's dog huddled in its dog house. She heard Sarah enter the room but only inclined her head slightly to assure the woman that she was acknowledged.

"How did you know today is my birthday?" Sarah moved over to stand next to the terminator. Her eyes stayed glued to girl, even when Cameron only met her gaze for a second before turning back to the window.

"John said so. And it's on your birth certificate."

Sarah snorted. "Obviously it's on my certificate."

Cameron's brow lowered in puzzlement. "Then why did you ask how I knew?" She asked giving Sarah a perplexed look.

Sarah shrugged, unsure herself why she asked, not letting Cameron know she didn't have an answer. She frowned as Cameron went back to looking out the window. Sarah wondered what was so interesting out there that she couldn't look at Sarah. Cameron was still evading her questions. She turned her attention to the window with a sigh, her eyes averting to Cameron every few seconds. "Why are you evading my questions?" She grounded out to the girl, in hopes it'll get her to talk.

"To show how annoying it is when you do it."

Cameron had said it so seriously that Sarah almost believed she meant it, leaving Sarah to whip her head around to the girl with her mouth slightly open in shock. But the girl's eyes were twinkling in amusement as she turned her body slightly to regard the older woman, showing that she was simply joking. It left Sarah biting her lip to keep herself from smiling due to Cameron's attempt at humour. She gave the cyborg kudos points for trying, and succeeding, at it.

Fate had a funny way of expressing itself. Sarah was smiling with the very thing she was trying to prevent from coming into this world. Could Cameron really be different? Was it Skynet trying to evolve the terminators into emotional beings? Or had John somehow changed Cameron into the person standing next to Sarah?

Perhaps it was Cameron. That some screwing with her chip has pushed away Skynet's and John's directives, opening up another choice for the girl; if so, could any terminator do it? Was it simply Cameron's model the only one able to do it? The questions were leaving Sarah with a migraine.

"Are you alright?" Cameron asked softly when she saw the way Sarah's brows knitted together in confusion. She only sees Sarah do that when something wasn't adding up to the older woman, usually leaving her with a sour attitude and a trigger finger feeling frisky to shoot at anything that moves too close to her. And Cameron didn't want to be the one on the receiving end of her 9mm that was resting in the waistband of Sarah's jeans.

Sarah's eyes shifted to the girl, giving no indication of answering the concerned cyborg. She was trying to see past the doe eyes, which were capturing her attention too much lately, to see the red eyes that haunted her dreams. But it was only Cameron's concerned filled eyes that looked back at her. No form of a terminator could be seen. It was baffling how Sarah stopped looking at Cameron as a machine but as an actual person. It was too much for one person who blows buildings up on a daily basis, and Sarah wanted to lock it away for another day. Another time she could analyze why this one machine was so different from all the rest.

"Sarah," Cameron beckoned her concern growing as the woman continued to simply stare at her. "Talk to me." Those captivating green eyes shifted away from her, moving back to the window before jerking back to Cameron, hesitation evident in them. Anytime Sarah looked at her Cameron would feel a jolt in her systems, a welcome heat burning through her when Sarah smiles at her attempts at a conversation. Sarah was like any human, but she was more beautiful than any machine or human that Skynet or God could make.

The older woman would never believe her if she were to say that. She's kept it herself since the day her emotions started to expand and act on their own without her programming them to respond to certain scenarios. She had feared she was malfunctioning, asking John to study over her chip when Sarah and Derek had left on a three day mission once. He said she was fine and that she was simply evolving.

Cameron feared that.

She feared her emotions would make her lose control and end up hurting Sarah in her attempt to protect her. It's why terminators are given missions, not hearts. Sarah would never return her fixation, for she believed machines hold no soul, could never understand beauty. Cameron has no soul in Sarah's eyes, and she will forever beat that into her chip, remind herself every day that Sarah will never be hers.

The thought of Sarah being disgusted with the metal under her skin had Cameron's synthetic heart squeezing in a breath stealing agony. She wanted nothing more than to show Sarah that she would love her and protect her and John from anything, anyone, that tries to cause them harm. That after seventeen years of locking her heart away she could finally let someone in. Someone that could fight by her side and make it out alive. Someone like her.

"Cameron, is there something you want to tell me?"

Sarah's voice brought the terminator from her gloomy thought process. Dark eyes lingered on the sight of Sarah Connor, taking in the full, pink lips and the swirling emotions brewing in her green orbs. She was close enough for Cameron to catch the scent that was directly associated with Sarah. Leather and gun oil with something on the lines of mint. She was intoxicating.

"Happy birthday, Sarah," They weren't the words the girl wanted to say, but they were the ones that fell passed her lips. Her coward state was keeping her from asking Sarah if she was worthy of her trust. She couldn't be. She didn't even trust herself, let alone worthy of another's trust.

The older woman chuckled, shifting slightly to face the girl that seemed to have fallen into her own mellow dramatic mood. "Do I get a present?" She teased.

"Do you want one?"

That look of childlike wonder was on Cameron's face again. It oddly pleased Sarah to have brought Cameron from her saddened state and into something more peaceful, less troubling. She only hoped it would last for the girl.

"Well, I don't know. John will probably get me something practical as his revenge for last year." Sarah answered as she slid her hands into her jeans pockets, the warmth of them basking away the cold the living room was from the air conditioner.

Cameron tilted her head. "Very well, I will get you a gift. You should go back to sleep." Her response left no room for argument, and Sarah felt relaxed enough to sleep those few hours her body had refused her several hours ago. The woman bid her good night, feeling eyes on her the whole time as she made her way back into her bedroom.

When Cameron heard Sarah's door click shut her thoughts immediately went to the gift. What would Sarah like? Asking John was out of the question. It was obvious he would seek revenge, like Sarah said he would. He was always rebelling against the older Connor, something Sarah found increasingly annoying and hurtful. Cameron understood his need to branch out from the tree, metaphorically speaking. He was growing up and Sarah had to let him go.

Derek was someone she refuses to even associate as a relative to John. The war had hardened him into a man that could never be trusted. Like he would answer her anyway; he would simply claim her to be finding ways to get close to them before she takes them out. If that was her mission, she would have killed them already. It was something Derek Reese couldn't wrap his head around.

She decided to wait till the sun was up to go buy Sarah's gift. She would find a way to express her feelings in that one gift. If only she knew what Sarah really wanted in a present.

**TBC...?**


End file.
